Red Cross Hands Over 11 Bodies in Colombia Probe

BOGOTA - The Red Cross on Sunday handed forensic experts 11 bodies believed to be the remains of Colombian lawmakers killed in rebel captivity as authorities tried to end a bitter dispute over how the men died.

The killing of the legislators underscored the plight of hostages held for years by Latin America's oldest left-wing insurgency, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American contract workers.

Families of the lawmakers gathered outside the forensic medical center in Cali, where experts will identify the remains to see whether the men died in a crossfire in June as rebels claim, or were murdered by guerrillas as the government says.

"This was a humanitarian gesture, because of the pain of the families, not just these ones, but of many, and their right to know what happened to their loved ones in this armed conflict," Christoph Vogt, Red Cross team leader, said.

The remains were unearthed from shallow graves on Saturday in a remote jungle site where the FARC had given the Red Cross coordinates to find the slain legislators. They were kidnapped in 2002 during a rebel raid on the local legislative building in Cali.

Violence from Colombia's four-decade guerrilla war has eased under President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed security crackdown, but thousands of people are still killed, maimed by landmines or displaced by combat every year.

The FARC, or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, wants Uribe to cede a demilitarized safe haven the size of New York City as a condition for releasing hostages. But he says the rebels will use such an area to regroup.

The United States and European governments brand the FARC a terrorist organization deeply involved in Colombia's huge cocaine smuggling business.

France, Spain and Switzerland are engaged in attempts to broker an agreement over freeing hostages, and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said recently he would meet with a FARC representative in Venezuela in an effort to end the deadlock.